It’s almost over.

People always say, when we’ve just lost a close game, “If they don’t make the playoffs they’ll be looking back at this game…” There’s no way we could pick out a game from this horrifying season to point a finger at. There were just too many. You couldn’t even pick a section of games to point the finger at. There were so many really bad stretches.

But you have to hand it to the Stars. They didn’t give up. They didn’t lose 7 in a row down the stretch and 9 out of 10 (so far), because they gave up. They were trying. They just couldn’t do it.

Last night, after the Flames got their second goal, I thought they looked defeated. You could kind of see that they were finally admitting they weren’t going to pull off a miracle. Still, they picked themselves up and kept trying right until the end of the game.

Fabian Brunnstrom had a really great game. I thought his line, with Neal and Lundqvist, did a pretty good job. I really think that he’s going to be great. It’s kind of different for the Stars to have players that think scoring first. His defensive game will improve, but the Stars need to be careful not to quash his offensive game. We need guys who think offense first. We’ve got plenty that think defense first.

Poor Mike Modano seemed to be giving his end-of-season interview after the game. He’s not any more used to missing the playoffs than any of us are. Steve Ott has pointed out before that he’s never missed the playoffs at any level until now.

I hope tomorrow’s final home game ends with a warm ovation and not any booing. They did the best they could with everything that went wrong this season. Even with only four games to go, there are players out there I don’t recognize. After the start they had, the fact that they were even close as long as they were was pretty impressive.

Hey Patty! I’ve never commented here before, but I’ve just started to come out of the shadows at L2L and thought I should say hello here, too. I just wanted to tell you that I’ve followed this blog for more than a year, and I absolutely love your insight on the Stars and all things hockey. Of course I also follow the DMN blog, Andrew’s, Defending Big D, etc., and while I appreciate the information and analysis from those sites, there are certain aspects of hockey that are examined and noted much more so from female fans, and the comments have a tendency to be more thoughtful and informed. The remarks on hockey and the state of the Stars I’ve enjoyed most have come from your posts here, Tracey Myers, SHR girls, and the women who comment at L2L (plus the non-Devils posts at IPB!). So I just wanted to say thanks for having this site! (Also, it’s such a nice reprieve from the inane and oftentimes immature and petty comments that show up at the DMN blog.)

I’m really sorry your season sucked so much. Don’t forget that you enjoyed a great playoff run last year, things can change really fast. Hopefully, next season will be more fun to follow for you stars fans!